Infrastructure Portfolio

Zac Kelder

Systems Administrator | Cloud & DevOps-Focused Engineer

Systems administrator building toward cloud/backend/devops work, with corporate infrastructure experience, earlier technical leadership under operational pressure, and a current cloud-backed software project.

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8+Years IT Experience
1,500+Server Systems Supported
300+Endpoints Supported
$20M+Equipment Accountability
9Person Team Led

Professional Background

Corporate systems administration with cloud/backend/devops direction.

Zac's professional foundation is corporate systems administration across global infrastructure, security operations, identity workflows, endpoint environments, and production-style software projects. His background includes Windows/Linux server environments, VMware vSphere, hybrid cloud resources, backups, endpoint security, Active Directory/cloud identity, and Jira-based support for users across North America, South America, and APAC.

Earlier in his career, he built a foundation in technical leadership and operational troubleshooting as a Military Intelligence Systems Maintainer/Integrator and squad leader. That experience included leading a 9-person team, maintaining accountability for more than $20M in equipment and property, supporting secure technical environments, and resolving systems issues under operational pressure where readiness, communication, and follow-through mattered.

Zac now applies that systems mindset to cloud-backed software development: building services that are deployable, supportable, documented, security-aware, and practical to operate. His current featured project is Food Checker, an iOS ingredient label scanner backed by OCR, FastAPI, PostgreSQL/Supabase, Docker, AWS-hosted services, and secure CI/CD release work.

Technical Focus

Systems fundamentals applied to cloud-backed services.

Systems Administration

Windows Server, Red Hat Linux, Active Directory, virtualization, patching, endpoint configuration, and backups/recovery.

Security Operations

Security+ CE, ITIL, Azure Defender, Sentinel, Sophos, DLP, vulnerability response, and secure operations support.

Cloud & DevOps

AWS EC2, Docker, Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions, OIDC-based AWS auth, Amazon ECR, AWS Systems Manager, and deployment workflows.

Networking & Infrastructure

Cisco routers/switches, network troubleshooting, encrypted communications systems, and global user support.

Backend Services

FastAPI, Python, REST APIs, PostgreSQL/Supabase, SQLAlchemy, Tesseract OCR, and service-layer integration for cloud-backed projects.

Featured Project

Food Checker

Mobile app + release engineering project

Mobile-first ingredient scanning with a production-style backend.

Food Checker is a mobile-first ingredient scanner for reviewing labels, potential allergens, dietary conflicts, and additive concerns. The Expo/React Native client is backed by a FastAPI OCR/analysis API and a production-style AWS delivery pipeline.

  • Built the mobile scanning workflow with Expo/React Native and a FastAPI OCR API.
  • Published versioned backend images to Amazon ECR with commit SHA and latest tags.
  • Provisioned AWS/IAM with Terraform and configured the EC2 host with Ansible.
  • Implemented GitHub Actions CI/CD with OIDC-based AWS auth and no long-lived keys.
  • Deploys versioned images through AWS Systems Manager without SSH, with health verification.
  • Documented CI/CD operations, fallback deploy paths, and production runbook notes.

OCR and ingredient matching can be imperfect, so users should verify labels directly. The app is informational only and is not medical, allergy, or nutrition advice.

Expo React Native TypeScript FastAPI Python Supabase PostgreSQL SQLAlchemy Tesseract OCR Docker Terraform Ansible GitHub Actions Amazon ECR AWS SSM AWS-hosted services REST APIs
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Release Engineering

Completed / Built

  • Public API health endpoint
  • Dockerized FastAPI service running through Docker Compose
  • Terraform-managed AWS infrastructure and IAM
  • Ansible-managed EC2 host configuration
  • GitHub Actions backend and mobile CI
  • OIDC federation to AWS without long-lived access keys
  • Amazon ECR image publishing with commit SHA and latest tags
  • AWS Systems Manager no-SSH deploys with health verification
  • OCR scan flow

Operating Model

Current deployment flow

  • Backend images are versioned and pulled from ECR
  • SSM is the primary deployment path
  • SSH deploy scripts are fallback and recovery paths only
  • Public API health endpoint verifies deployments
  • CI/CD and production notes are documented

Experience Snapshot

Corporate-scale infrastructure, security operations, leadership, and current software delivery.

Corporate Systems Administration

Supported global infrastructure across North America, South America, and APAC, including approximately 1,500 Windows/Linux server systems, VMware vSphere, local server/data room environments, hybrid cloud resources, backup systems, and roughly 300 endpoints.

Security & Identity Operations

Worked as part of an internal security team monitoring alerts, investigating issues, creating and tuning rules, remediating endpoint problems, tuning Outlook spam filtering, and supporting Active Directory/cloud identity workflows across users, groups, permissions, onboarding, offboarding, and access control.

Operational Leadership

Served as a squad leader for a 9-person technical team with responsibility for more than $20M in equipment and property, supporting secure technical environments where troubleshooting, readiness, documentation, and accountability mattered under operational pressure.

Current Software Focus

Building Food Checker end-to-end as a cloud-backed mobile app with Expo/React Native, OCR, FastAPI, PostgreSQL/Supabase, Docker, a public API, and secure AWS release automation.

Experience

Operational responsibility across enterprise and military environments.

System Administrator

Trilliant Networks Inc.

2023–2025
  • Administered Windows and Linux virtual servers and supported system performance, patching, endpoint configuration, and user access.
  • Supported security operations using tools such as Azure Defender/Sentinel and Sophos.
  • Assisted with vulnerability response, data loss protection, email filtering, backup/recovery, onboarding, and global user support.
  • Diagnosed network and endpoint issues while contributing to IT projects in a fast-paced enterprise environment.

Technical Systems Maintainer

U.S. Army

2017–2023
  • Led, mentored, and trained a 9-person technical team supporting complex systems and readiness requirements.
  • Supported Windows and Red Hat Linux servers, Cisco network equipment, endpoint hardware, communications systems, and secure operating environments.
  • Maintained accountability and serviceability of equipment and property valued over $20M.
  • Supported patching, troubleshooting, system performance monitoring, security procedures, operational testing, and deployment readiness.

Contact

Open to systems, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and platform operations roles.

I’m focused on roles where hands-on infrastructure experience, security-minded operations, and practical cloud deployment work can grow together.

contact@zkelder.dev github.com/zkelder LinkedIn coming soon